Burning sensation after consuming alcohol

I put a post on here over a year ago complaining of this problem. At that time it had been happening for almost a year. About a month ago it got better and right now it is almost non-existent. The only thing that I can attribute it to was that I was drinking 6 or more Mountain Dews a day and quit that a little over a month ago. I still drink one every 2-3 days and no other soda at all. I don't know if that explains it but I have drank about the same amount of alcohol consistently over this time period (2-4x per week) and the same things (beer and wine). My diet and nothing else has changed.

Funny, been subscribed to this post for maybe a year now. If I'm perfectly honest this problem has almost completely gone for me too. And after reading what the person above has just said, I am starting to wonder whether a similar change in diet has been my solution. I used to drink ALOT of coke when this problem was frequent. Maybe 3-4 cans a day, and if I wasn't drinking coke, i would be drinking redbull or other types of energy drinks - all of which are very high in sugar. I now only drink on average around 250ml of pop a day which i suppose would support the fact that the problem hasn't entirely gone.

I know this post is old but I googled this topic since I too have this issue to see what Google could find. I've always had the issue, ever since I was younger and began drinking. Consuming mass amounts of water to basically flush out my body was the only thing that relieved the burning after alcohol consumption. What I would recommend for anyone having this issue, is to go in and get your kidney's checked. I had a renal ultrasound done just a couple months ago and have been since diagnosed with Medullary Sponge Kidney (MSK) this is a Congenital birth defect, not something that I did to myself. It's possible any sort of Kidney problem could cause the burning since the Kidney's filter out toxins from your blood. I still need to meet with another Urologist and a Kidney specialist to learn more about my Kidney disease but it wouldn't hurt to get your own kidney's looked at. 

If you have any kind of burning sensation during urination that can't be attributed to bacteria or foreign matter (basically getting UTI's out of nowhere) please go get your kidney's checked. Especially if flushing your body out with water seems to alleviate this. I stopped drinking soda, diet soda, anything with Cola, High fructose corn syrup, limit my intake of coffee and I have noticed a significant difference in my body's responses. Water, Cranberry juice and low fat milk seems to be my method of comfort.

The young pharmacists explanation was helpful to me as I too have the same problem. Thanks to everyone who has posted their experiences. I used to think that I was allergic to alcohol but I now see that the explanation of how ethanol reacts in the bladder is possibly the explanation. However, the pain only started about five years ago for me. I have always had a very low tolerance for alcohol and immediately feel its effects. In fact, I can't really drink more than a glass of wine otherwise I get nauseous. Anything with a higher percentage of alcohol stops me at a few sips! I think basically and logically I should just stop drinking alcoholic beverages. It's kind of too bad considering I live in Italy, a wine drinking country, but oh, well, c'est la vie!

I have the same problem. It doesn't always happen , but it does. I'm a 21 year old female and this has happened when I have alcohol for the past 3 years about. I've seen my gyno and doctors and no one tells me anything. I had to beg my doctors for tests but everything was inconclusive.

I have the exact problem everyone has mentioned. I'm a 21 year old female and this happens to me as described. Within 2 minutes of drinking alcohol (especially beer), I get a horrible burning in my vagina. I am STD free, I've been tested for everything under the sun to try and get this problem solved.
BUT
I read one of the last comments by a pharmaceutical tech. He mentioned that there may be some issues with the break down process in our bodies after metabolism which could be causing the burning.
BUT
I realized that I was also recently diagnosed with lactic-acidicis , which my chiropractor diagnosed me with. In short, it means that your body, when going through the metabolistic process, messes up (basically) and instead of converting lactic acid into energy it dumps it and therefore stores lactic acid in all your major muscles. I therefore think it could be boiled down to our body's mistep in the metobolic process. I don't remember all the medical explanations, but maybe it could begin to explain the issue.
I was diagnosed with lacticacidicis by my chiropractor because I have excrutiating pain in my ankles/heels when I'm on my feet for extended periods of time, for years. Also, light pokes or bumps into any of my larger muscles ( arms, thighs, etc) creates unbelievable throbbing pain.
I am being given special medicine for this, more like vitamins, in about a week. I will definetly come back here and let you know if that actually does prevent this burning problem after I've been on it for a week or so.

I do believe that seeing a non-drug based doctor such as a chiropractor will give you more answers then regular doctors, as was the case for me for years.

++If you don't know much about lactic acid, it is a naturally occuring substance in your body. If you go to the chiropractor and get adjusted, the lactic acid in your muscles which has kept them tight and painful is realeased , therefore drinking water to flush your body is usually suggested.
It is also a useful part of your body and system, but too much in your muscles as in my case , is not good.

Let me know if any help comes from this . AND let me know if anyone gets a straight  answer as to what this for sure is!

I am a 45 year old male, I have this same issue within 2-3 minutes the burning sensation in the urethra.  I have kidney stones and my urologist thinks it could be part of why it's happening  I have had sonograms, xrays,cystoscopy and more.  Nothing abnormal, the dr still wants to do more testing.  My blood work came back no issues.  I have tried drinking 2 big cups of water before drinking a beer, and it did NOTHING for me.  I actually have to have a beer at home if i know I am going to have a drink later.  I have been searching the web and their is no logical explanation for what is going on, pretty scary if you ask me.  I also noticed that sometimes when I urinate on a normal day it burns a little not nearly like with alcohol but still odd pain.  It's really good to know I am not alone with this, it's very embarassing to explain what is going on to friends and family.  I hope someone finally figures this out and posts here.  I will definitely update what procedures I have been through

I am the poster on here who indicated this problem ceased for me when I quit drinking Mountain Dew and soda altogether. After several months and a few relapses with Mountain Dew I can tell you, without a doubt, Mountain Dew was the problem. I have had a few relapses of starting to drink Mountain Dew again and I the burning sensation reoccurs. Over the last few weeks I have begun drinking a lot of coffee with spends added. This has not caused the sensation to occur at all. Either with or without coffee it was unaffected. Nothing else regarding what I eat or drink has been affected. I have drank some Dr. Pepper here and there and I can't really tell you whether it affected me or not because it has.been in conjunction with a relapse of drinking Mountain Dew. I do know for certain that if it Dr. Pepper causes this problem it is to a lesser extent than Mountain Dew. Perhaps there are other foods or drinks that would trigger this symptom or perhaps there is a something physically wrong with me that a urologist and numerous testing have not figured out. But I am sure in my case it has nothing to do with lactic acid because I don't have those other symptoms she mentioned. I am 100% sure it doesn't matter how much water I drink or have anything to do with overall hydration levels. None of these posts as far as potential issues that may be causing this except possibly for the spongy kidney condition are relevant to my situation. I am not going to worry about testing for the kidneys because according to what I read there isn't anything that you can do about it.

I am a 25 year old male. I've had this problem as well for the last couple of years. However, I have a very high tolerance for alcohol so it takes about 3-4 drinks before I feel the burning. Also, it only happens about 30% of the time, but lately it has been happening more often. I never drink soda and the only form of sugar I eat is from fruits. My best guess why this is happening is that when you drink alcohol, your blood vessels expand and, if you have an overly sensitive member to begin with, it might cause discomfort. The reason I think this is true is that if it starts burning and I squeeze the base really hard and cut off the blood supply, I stop feeling it. Btw, I think it would also be helpful if people mentioned whether they are circumcized or not. I am not.

Hi I am 26 with the same condition. No STDs or anything else discernible. I had this problem once a few years ago a couple of times when I was drinking heavily and it lasted a few days, figured UTI as I was clean of STDs and it went away with water and cranberry juice type cures(was right after high school I was drinking heavily daily and did not attribute it to the alcohol).  Any type of alcohol gives it to me now for the past 3 or 4 months, but it varies from just a little annoying to pretty debilitating at times with frequent urination required with white stringy discharge. I also have been diagnosed with acid reflux and find that the worst cases coincide with bouts of bad heart burn. I used to drink lots of Mt. Dew and did not have the problem then, but I drink coffee so the caffeine could be part of the trigger.

Im 23 years old and have suffered with this problem for the past 2 years. Probably the most annoying thing to deal with (no STD's).I have noticed that when I cut down on sugar in particular and increase my water intake it almost never happens. I am very sensitive to alcohol and consume it rarely. I'm on here because it happened a couple of minutes ago and I had 4 mike hard lemonade over the course of the day(humm sugar). My doctor seems to have no clue when I describe it. Unlike other posters mine does not happen until I urinate. Oh and that burning sensation in the rectal area happens almost simultaniously....

Well, since I posted about a month ago I stopped drinking wine and spirits (even if it was only on occasion) completely and no longer have any of the previous symptoms that were causing me the burning sensation to urinate immediately. I had already cut down on my sugar intake beforehand so for me it is really the ethanol that I could not tolerate or digest.

HI update to this post. I have gone to Cornell medical center and have seen a specialist. He performed a cystoscopy and confirmed that I ahve cystitis of the bladder ( swelling of the bladder wall) . No cancer and see's no issue at all with my bladder says its very normal.. Also told me that with the cystitis it could cause irritation in the urethra ( the reason alcohol hurts more is that the blood flow is increased with alocohol ) I do have the pain sometimes when i don;t drink alcohol so this makes sense to me.

Hi, I posted last year as I was having the same on going problem. In the meantime, my partner and I have been trying to conceive without luck so I had some tests done and the Ureaplasma urealyticum bacteria was found in my results. I was given the Bassado antibiotic and a very positive side effect occured: I no longer have any of the pain I used to have when drinking wine and alcohol. It turns out that this bacteria is not considered an STD so not generally tested, but is responsible for infertility. It was probably the cause for the pain I endured when alcohol entered my system. So I'm happy to say I have started having wine again every now and then with no pain as a result. My boyfriend also had to take the antibiotic just to make sure he didn't pass the bacteria back on to me but since he didn't have pain when drinking alcohol I doubt he had it. So it could be worth having a test done for Ureaplasma urealyticum bacteria. You never know!